Ideological justification to back terror be defeated: Yechury

"The net of terror spread by the Hindutva terrorist groups continue to widen, posing a very serious threat to the unity and integrity of the secular-democratic modern India," party leader Sitaram Yechury said, demanding that all perpetrators of terror attacks, including those involved in the Malegaon blasts, should be brought to book and punished.

In an editorial in the forthcoming issue of CPI(M) organ 'People's Democracy', he said, "It is imperative that such pernicious ideological methods of using terror for realising a political objective needs to be decisively defeated" in order to safeguard India's secular, democratic foundations.

"We continue to maintain that terrorism has no religion. It is simply anti-national and, hence, the country should display zero tolerance. Further, terrorism of all varieties only feed and strengthen each other, seeking to destroy the very unity and integrity of our country," Yechury said.

He also drew a parallel between the stand of the RSS at the time of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination and the recent involvement of Hindutva outfits in several cases.

"This is not merely an expression of double standards. It reflects the ideological roots of converting the modern secular democratic republic of India into the RSS version of a 'Hindu Rashtra' based on rabid religious intolerance."

Yechury said National Investigation Agency probe into the February 2007 Samjhauta Express blasts and the conspiracy behind it, revealed links of the accused in terror strikes in Malegaon (September 8, 2006), Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid (May 18, 2007) and Ajmer Dargah (October 11, 2007). 68 people were killed in the Samjhauta blasts.

He said even before these revelations, CPI(M) had drawn government's attention to various reports linking some Hindutva groups with a series of bomb blasts across the country.